MorrisF1

A significant question about this race and the next (UK, just a week away) involves the Mercedes engine. The new spec looks very powerful (the margin isn’t enormous but the season’s so tight any advantage is significant), but Perez had a rare retirement last time, because of fears over his engine. Before introducing the new spec, which was delayed, there were concerns over its reliability. In the first practice session, Hamilton was a tenth ahead of Bottas, with similar gaps back to Verstappen and Vettel. Ricciardo and Raikkonen came next, with Grosjean, Ocon, Leclerc and Gasly rounding out the top 10. It’s a sign of Leclerc’s strong performances that seeing him in the top 10 isn’t especially surprising (worth noting Ericsson was 11 th ). The second session had the same top two, with Vettel very close behind. Ricciardo, Verstappen and Raikkonen were next, then came Grosjean and Magnussen, Gasly and Vandoorne. Final practice Vettel was fastest, a very small margin ahead...

More exciting race than many feared, particularly given there wasn’t a spot of rain. Naturally, the driver I backed to finish top 2 had a problem not of his making on the first lap and the bet failed utterly, as is the way this year. Off the line it was largely formation flying until Vettel locked up and struck the back of Bottas. This caused both to need early pit stops (the German had a broken nose, the Finn a puncture). Behind them, Ocon was struck by someone (perhaps Grosjean) and then hit again by Gasly. Ocon and Gasly both retired at this stage. The safety car emerged, and the stewards had an hour or so of checking the footage and doling out penalties, or not (Vettel and Grosjean each got a 5 second time penalty). The prime beneficiaries were the Red Bulls, with Verstappen rising to 2 nd , and Sainz, who was up to 3 rd . Despite fears to the contrary, there was plenty of overtaking. Much of it was Vettel and Bottas carving their way through the field, and Sa...

It rained in third practice, and rained heavily again in the Formula 2 race that followed qualifying, but, alas, qualifying itself was dry. Not only that, the Mercedes were very strong due to their new new engine (that is, a new engine on a new spec. There had been speculation that the new engine would be a new old engine, but it seems the Silver Arrows got on top of reliability concerns). Clearly, I need to work on my rain dance. In Q1, the two Williams were slowest. No huge surprise there, but more unexpected was that both McLarens failed to progress. Hartley also failed to escape, which means both Saubers made Q2 for the first time since Ivarr the Boneless invaded Britain. In Q2, Ericsson didn’t get any further, but his team mate Leclerc did (a full eight-tenths up on the Swede), making Q3 in impressive style. Neither Force India nor Gasly could go any further. Hulkenberg, who had been utterly dominant over his team mate in qualifying until recently, was outqualified by ...

After a prolonged, rather odd, absence, F1 returns to France. Specifically, Marseilles, founded by the Greeks as Massilia and the heart of the Roman province Gallia Narbonensis. The Circuit Paul Ricard is not one with which I’m familiar, so I cunningly look at a diagram to try and guess how things might turn out. It’s quite similar to Canada. Lots of straight lines, so horsepower is at a premium. Most corners look slow too. Correspondingly, it may well be hard on brakes (potentially bad news for Leclerc who had a failure in Monaco and brake difficulties in Canada). The high number of straights should, perhaps, be indicative of overtaking opportunities, but that was thought/hoped to be the case in Canada and instead most cars ended up being strung out. Watched a video of a lap, and, unless things have been updated, there’s lots of bedwetting run-off areas. Early doors, the weather forecast is for it to be totally dry and sunny. It’s the 13 th as I write this, and ...

Another red race, and not a classic to watch, either. At least this time it was misjudgement rather than the invincible hand of ill-fortune which saw it fail (I thought Ricciardo would have better race pace than he did, including better than his team mate. He rose two places, but three were required). Off the line, Verstappen started well and nearly got past Bottas, who drove robustly (but fairly) to retain his position. Raikkonen got close to Hamilton, had to back off, enabling Ricciardo to just about squeeze past the Finn. Further back, Stroll had another flying start (a good habit of his). Unfortunately, this also meant he ended up tangling with Hartley in what I’d describe as a racing incident. Both men were out, the track was strewn with debris, and before the first lap ended we had a safety car. Alas, that was almost it as far as on-track excitement went. When the safety car came in, Vettel pulled effortlessly away from Bottas. Whilst the teams all looked c...

Qualifying was even tighter than I’d imagined. Very mixed up grid at the sharp end, including varying tyres. Could be intriguing. Qualifying began with yet more bad luck for Grosjean. The poor chap must’ve run over a witch’s cat during pre-season testing. His engine ejected a magnificent plume of smoke in the pit lane. Although he pulled over and his engineers were able to wheel him back to his pit box, that was the end of his session. In less surprising news, both Williams failed to escape, and Ericsson was ahead only of Grosjean. Slightly unexpectedly, Gasly was also eliminated, although that may have been due to having to use an older, less powerful engine. Q2 had an interesting result, with the McLarens slowest (Alonso faster) and Leclerc qualifying ahead of both of them in his Sauber. The Monegasque seems to be doing rather well. Ahead of him, but by less than a tenth, were Magnussen and Hartley. The Kiwi will be pleased to qualify well, which may dampen rumours of his...

Williams has split with Dirk De Beer, their aero chief, which follows the recent departure of Ed Wood, the team’s chief designer. Perhaps not wholly surprising, given how poor the car has been this year. Apparently the 2018 car’s weakness is due to a significant aerodynamic flaw. The problem involves the turning of the front wheels disrupting air to the rear, making the car very ropey on long corners (they’re going to have fun at 130R when we go to Japan). After his victory in the world’s most exciting race, Ricciardo will be facing a grid penalty for using too many parts. This is thought to be at least a 10 place penalty for using more MGU-K bits than permitted, but could include other penalties too. Given he’s likely to qualify around 5 th or so, any extra penalties will see him pretty much starting last. Update: after all that, he apparently won’t have a penalty after all as the team managed to replace a broken part with an old one. His team mate, meanwhile, has not ne...

Hey, kids. Keeping the old three articles per weekend formula but having a crack at adding some other stuff too (bits of news, early thoughts on how things might go etc). My plan was to do this with short Youtube videos as well, but given I’ve spent most of the last few days trying not to vomit my lungs, that’s on hold. Anyway, early thoughts on the circuit of Canada, the prospects of the top dogs, and the prospects of the rest. The circuit Canada is a great old track, a place of high speeds, and slow corners. The hairpin provides opportunity to overtake under braking, and if that doesn’t work there are a couple of straights (the first being rather long) to get the job done. Barriers are close in places, particularly the Wall of Champions, which sits adjacent to the chicane connecting the two straights. Weather can be soggy. The 2011 race, which was magnificent, was subject to a downpour that made it last over four hours before Button, who visited the p...